The Pizza Heaven

The Best Non-Stick Pizza Peel – an Easy Guide to Prevent Sticking

Pizza Peels, Tools / pizza peels / By / January 13, 2024

I don’t even remember how many times pizza sticking to my pizza peel has ruined my pizza night. So I asked myself: Is there any non-stick pizza peel, or other techniques to prevent pizza peel from sticking I dug deep to find a better a better way to transfer pizza into the oven, and here’s what I found.

Why Pizza Is Sticking to the Pizza Peel

The main reason pizza is sticking to the pizza peel during transfer is that the moisture of the dough creates a vacuum between the dough and the carrying surface of the peel. Heavier (overtopped) pizza also tends to stick more to the peel due to more friction caused by the weight.

The Best Non-Stick Pizza Peel

A wooden pizza peel is the best non-stick pizza peel. The drawback is however that wooden peels are pretty thick, making them less ideal for getting the pizza out of the oven when it’s done baking. You, therefore, need two peels if you go the wooden route. Therefore the best all-around option to prevent sticking is a perforated metal pizza peel.

Wooden Pizza Peel – The Best Non-Stick Pizza Peel

The first option is using a wooden pizza peel. Wood is a traditional choice and is often used in Neapolitan pizzerias. The main benefit of a wooden peel when it comes to preventing sticking is that it’s not completely smooth. Due to the grains in the wood, the surface is less likely to create a vacuum between the dough and the peel than e.g. a metal peel.

I love using a wooden pizza peel to transfer my pizza from the working surface to the oven, and in my opinion, it is the best option. But it’s worth mentioning that wooden pizza peel often is pretty thick. This makes it hard to slide it under the pizza during baking. Therefore you also need a thinner, metal pizza peel for turning and getting the pizza out from the oven. So if you don’t mind having one peel to transfer pizza into the oven, and want the best possible peel, wood is the way to go!

Metal Pizza Peel – Not the Ideal Non-Stick Pizza Peel

A metal pizza peel has a much smoother surface than a wooden pizza peel, making more vacuum between the peel and the pizza. This means that pizza tends to stick more to metal pizza peels. Even though metal peels can be made from a variety of different metal materials, it’s the finish of the surface that matters the most.

Metal pizza peels do however have other benefits. Because of the strength of the material pizza peel can be made very thin, and still be sturdy. This makes them perfect to slide under pizza that’s baking in the oven. The smooth surface is a benefit here since it makes it even easier to get the peel under the pizza. I therefore strongly recommend a metal pizza peel for working with pizza in the oven, that’s where a metal peel really shines.

This doesn’t mean you can’t use a metal pizza peel to transfer pizza into the oven. I use it quite often when I’m visiting my parents, who only have a metal peel they bought when they visited Italy a few years ago. With the right technique (more on this in the next section), and a little bit of practice, you’ll have no problem using a metal peel.

But there is actually a way to make a non-stick pizza peel out of metal. The answer is a perforated carrying surface.

Perforated Pizza Peel – Best of Both Worlds

A perforated is a pizza peel with a carrying surface filled with small hols. These peels are most commonly made from metal, which allows them to have a thin carrying surface.

The perforated carrying surface (all the small holes) allows airflow that prevents a vacuum from being created between the peel and the dough. A perforated pizza peel also has a smaller contact surface. This combination will prevent the pizza from getting stuck.

Another benefit is that it gets rid of excess flour, which can burn in the oven create smoke, and give your pizza unpleasant flavors.

One thing worth mentioning is that you should avoid using a perforated peel with too large holes. If the holes are too large, the dough will sink into the holes, making the pizza very hard to slide off the peel.

In my experience, a wooden pizza peel is still a better option if you’re only looking at preventing sticking. A perforated peel is however a better all-around peel, and you can get away with only owning one peel. I, therefore, Recommend a perforated pizza peel for those who are looking for the best of both worlds.

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How to Prevent Pizza Peel Sticking

Use a Non-Stick Pizza Peel

The first, and most essential thing is to use a non-stick pizza peel. The best option is using a wooden pizza peel, but a perforated metal peel is also a great option. I’ve already discussed this, so I will just say that using the right type of peel will set you up for success following the rest of the steps.

Dough Hydration

Hydration is the first thing that affects how sticky your dough is. The higher hydration the dough has, the softer and more sticky it gets.

What Is Dough Hydration?

In short, dough hydration in baking is the amount of water a dough contains compared to flour, measured in percentages. For example, a dough that contains 1000g of flour and 600g of water has a dough hydration of 60%. (water/flour: 600g/1000g = 0.6 = 60%)

More water in the dough affects the gluten, making the dough softer. Therefore a higher hydrated dough will be softer, puff up more during baking, and also be stickier.

How Dough Hydration Affects Stickiness

If you’ve ever tried mixing a high-hydration dough, you’ve probably experienced how sticky it is. It sticks to the bowl, to the dough scraper, to your finger – everywhere. Now, imagine that you leave this dough on a pizza peel. Can you visualize how hard it’s going to be to slide that dough into the oven?

To be fair, sufficient kneading will make the dough less sticky, due to gluten development. But the dough is still going to be hard to deal with if it contains too much water.

How to Deal With High-Hydration Pizza Dough

A solution is to add flour to the dough before stretching it. This will create a flour cover that prevents the moisture from being in direct contact with the pizza peel and creates a vacuum. But make sure to shake off as much excess flour as possible to prevent it from burning in the oven.

What’s the Ideal Dough Hydration?

That’s a hard question to answer. The hydration of your dough will depend on what kind of pizza you want to make, and it’s largely about personal preference. It’s all about finding the balance between stickiness and other features of your pizza dough.

Neapolitan pizza should have a dough hydration of around 60%, according to the AVPN (The True Neapolitan Pizza Association). When you’re working with anything above 70-80% hydration, the dough tends to be very soft, in addition to sticky. This will make the dough hard to work with and transfer onto the pizza peel. I therefore personally prefer to work with pizza dough between 60% and 70% hydration, as this gives perfectly soft and nice dough without being too sticky.

Oil

Traditionally oil is not added to Neapolitan pizza, but I know a lot of home cooks are adding olive oil to their pizza dough. A pizza dough that contains a lot of oil, or that’s coated with oil to easily get it out of its rising container, is naturally sticky. Oil certainly has a place in pizza baking (due to its conductive properties helping the dough to bake faster), but it makes the dough more sticky to work with.

I, therefore, recommend covering the dough ball with flour before you start working with the dough as mentioned in the previous section about dealing with high-hydration doughs. Make sure every inch of the dough is covered so you don’t have any small, oily spots. Then shake off as much excess flour as possible, since you don’t want the flour to burn in the oven. By doing this, you’ll get a thin layer of flour all around the dough ball that counteracts the stickiness of the oil.

Dusting the Peel with Flour

To make sure the dough doesn’t stick to the peel, you can dust the pizza peel. You have a few different options for dusting.

Dusting With Pizza Flour

Dusting the peel with the same wheat flour you’re using for your pizza dough may seem like the most obvious choice. But fine wheat flour isn’t ideal for dusting your peel. The reason is, as mentioned briefly already, it will burn in the oven. Burned flour will both make your oven smoky and add bad taste to the pizza. I, therefore, recommend not using wheat flour for dusting, as there are better options.

Dusting With Cornmeal

Another common thing to use is cornmeal since it can handle heat better than fine wheat flour. Cornmeal is also coarser than pizza flour, something that contributes to making the pizza slide easier. However, even though it handles heat better than wheat flour, it can burn in a hot pizza oven or on a pizza stone. Cornmeal also adds texture and flavor to your pizza, that you may not want. Neapolitan pizza doesn’t traditionally use cornmeal, and in my opinion, it’s an odd flavor combination. I, therefore, recommend going to semolina instead.

Dusting With Semolina

Semolina is a coarse type of wheat flour and a more traditional option. and therefore works the same way as cornmeal. It helps the pizza slide easier on and off the pizza peel due to the coarseness of the flour. Semolina can handle heat better than both fine wheat flour and cornmeal. It also adds less flavor to the pizza crust than cornmeal. I, therefore, recommend using semolina on your pizza peel

Don’t Use Parchment Paper

Using parchment paper to transfer the pizza onto a pizza stone or steel is something I see people do all the time. This is however a really bad idea, since parchment is not designed to handle the temperature you want to bake pizza in, and therefore will burn. If you want to read more, check out the article: Why You Should Never use Parchment Paper on a Pizza Stone.

Time on the Peel

Time is of the essence when it comes to sticky pizza dough. In general, the longer you leave the pizza on the peel, the more likely it is to get stuck. I, therefore, recommend preparing the pizza on the kitchen countertop and then moving it over to the pizza peel. This will minimize the time on the pizza peel.

Prepare the Pizza on the Countertop to Minimize Time on the Peel

The main benefit of preparing the pizza on the countertop, or another working surface, is that you can catch sticking early. It really sucks to realize that the pizza is stuck when you’re trying to slide it into the oven. Perhaps it’s halfway onto the blazing hot pizza stone or pizza steel. At that point, there isn’t much you can do to save your pizza! It’s therefore important to catch the sticking early, so you can save your pizza.

If you’re preparing the pizza on your countertop, and try to slide it and realize that a part of the pizza is stuck, you can use a spatula or dough scraper to loosen the dough. Then apply some flour if needed, before you proceed to slide the pizza over to your peel.

Don’t Overtop the Pizza

Another important thing is to not overtop your pizza. Even the best non-stick pizza peel with struggle with a 3-pounds monster pizza!

The added weight will make it harder to move the pizza and increase any sticking that already happening. So a kinda stuck pizza will suddenly be very stuck if add too much topping.

Another thing to avoid is to add too much sauce. Adding more sauce, especially if left for a while, will add more moisture to the dough. This extra moisture will make the dough stick more to the peel.

Andreas
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